made in this county. A great deal of its meadow ground is turned into ponds and pools, to drive hammer-mills by the flashes. Here we were regaled with the delicious bird, called the wheat ear, for which this county is particularly famous "Tis no bigger than a lark, and is taken by digging a hole in the ground, into which they put a fnare of horfe-hair, and then cover the hole, very near, with the turf, turning the graffy fide downwards; this bird being fo very timorous, that the fhadow even of a cloud frightens them into thefe little cavities. They are fo fat, that, when caught, they cannot be carried many miles without being tainted: and even in plucking them they must be handled as little as possible: and they are fatest when the wheat is ready.

to be cut down.

I was told, that in winter the roads were fo deep in fome parts, that they were obliged to draw their coaches with oxen.

We at last arrived in Kent, which is the most eastern county on the English channel, and of which I had retained great notions, from the account my tutor had given of its having been an entire kingdom of itself in the time of the heptarchy; and how the Kentish men obliged William the Conqueror to confirm their ancient privileges. This county ftands as it were in a corner, and may properly be divided into three parts, according to the nature of its foil; viz. the downs, which may be faid to have health without wealth; the marshy parts, which have wealth without health; and the middle, which enjoy both health and wealth. But,

The county, in general, abounds with plantations of hops, fields of corn, pastures, and woods of oak, beech, and chefnuts, and fine orchards of cherries and pippins; and, about Boxley, Foots Cray, North Cray, &c. are many woods of birch, from whence the broom-makers are fupplied, who live in Kent Street, Southwark. The cattle here, of all forts, are reckoned larger than they are in the neighbouring counties; and the Weald of Kent is noted for its large bullocks, as well as for its great timber for shipping. Here are feveral parks of fallow deer, and warrens of greyish rabbits. Here are mines of iron, and pits of marle and chalk; woad, and madder, for dyers; wool, flax, faintfoyn; and on the cliffs, between Folkftone and Dover, is plenty of famphire.

From Kent we croffed the water at Greenwich, and arrived at Limehoufe, in the county of Middlefex. This is but a fmall county, but pleafant, fruitful, and dignified with the city of London, the capital of the nation, and the city of Westminster, which is the feat of the British monarchs. It abounds with rich and pleafant villages; and I may in one word compleat its character, when I declare it to be my opinion, that here are more ingenious men, and more money fpent in coftly apparel, eating, drinking, plays, operas, and other diverfions and gaieties of life, than in any other tract of land of the fame circumference in the whole world befides.

As to the produce, manufactures, and trade of this county, I am informed, that the whole county almoft is cantoned out into corn or pafture, and garden grounds near the city. The manufactures are chiefly confined to the city or fuburbs, of which hereafter: But it is amazing to fee in the neighbouring fields the immense tale of bricks and tiles which are daily making for the fupply of new buildings. The trade being wholly carried on in the port of London, it will be more properly remarked when I give an account of that great and opulent city.

Having ftaid fome time in London, we proceeded on our journey crofs Bow-bridge, which divides Middlefex from Effex, a county fo called, as has been before related, from the Eaft Saxons, by whom it was inhabited.

The air is generally temperate; but near the sea and the Thames, among the hundreds, it is moift; and the inhabitants are subject to agues. It abounds with corn, cattle, wood, and wild-fowl; and the north parts of it, especially about Saffron-Walden, produce great quantities of faffron; the best in the world: The foil in fome places thereabouts being fo rich, that after three crops of faffron it yields good barley, for near twenty years together, without dunging. In other parts it produces hops.

It is particularly obferved of this county, that, generally fpeaking, the foil is best where the air is worst, and è contra; for the parts next to the fea and the Thames among the fenny hundreds, which are fo aguish, abound with rich pastures and corn lands; whereas the inland parts, though healthy, are many of them gravelly and fandy, and not fo good either for corn or grafs, but more productive of furze, broom, brakes; yet there are others of clay and loam foils, which bear excellent corn and pafturage. No county affords provifions of all forts in greater plenty than this, both by land and water, for the supply not only of its own inhabitants, but of the city of London. Many good and ferviceable horses are bred in the marshes. Abundance of fat oxen and sheep are alfo brought from thence to their markets; and corn is weekly fent up to that city in great quantities. Great dairies of cows are alfo kept here, which bring forth calves admired for the whiteness and delicacy of their flesh, infomuch that, As good as an Effex calf, is a common proverb, with the citizens, to denote what they like, as is the other faying, As valiant as an Effex lion, to ridicule what they defpife.

About forty-five miles north-eaft of London, in this county, is carried on the great manufacture of Colchester baize, fo famous throughout Spain, Portugal, and their American plantations; which are brought to London in waggons containing eighty or ninety hundred weight each, drawn with fix horfes only; the roads being fo very hard and level. N.B. The Effex farmers buy lean calves at Smithfield market, London, and having fatted them, bring them to the fame place to fell again.

Hertfordshire is an inland county, and abounds in grafs, wood, and corn fields, covered with loofe ftones. As there is little or no manufacture in this shire, which is full of maltsters, millers, dealers in corn, &c. fo their trade would be inconfiderable, was it not for its being every way a great thoroughfare, and for its neighbourhood to London, which makes the chief market-towns to be much frequented, for the fale of wheat, barley, and all forts of grain, not only the growth of this, but feveral other counties. Wheat, barley and malt are its chief commodities. And the barley of Hert- fordshire is so much prized in London, that many hundred quarters are fold by that name in a year, of which not a grain was ever fown in this county.

From Hertfordshire we travelled into Bedfordshire, which we found to be a fruitful country; efpecially the north parts, which yield plentiful crops of plump, white, and ftrong barley, which, made into malt, is frequently fold in London, and other parts, for that of Hertfordshire. It has forefts and parks well ftored with deer, fat pastures with cattle, produces great quantities of butter and cheese, with fuller's earth, and woad for dying, and has plenty of poultry. Its chief manufactures are bone-lace, and ftraw-hats.

The woad, for which this county is famous, is the plant with which the ancient Britons used to dye their bodies, that they might appear the more terrible to their enemies; but rather, as fome think, to preferve them from the inclemency of the weather. It is cultivated here after this manner it is fown every year, and the old woad, except what they fave for feed, is plucked up. The beginning of March is the season

feafon for fowing it, and the middle of May for cropping it. It is beft in a dry year; . but more plentiful in a wet one. It is cropped commonly four or five times a-year as it comes up; but the first crop is beft, and every one after it gradually worse. When gathered it is immediately ground fmall in a mill, till it becomes fit to ball; and when balled, it is laid upon hurdles to dry; and then ground into powder. After this it is fpread on a floor, and watered, which is called couching; and then it it turned every day till it is perfectly dry and mouldy, which is called filvering. After filvering, it is weighed, and put into a bag containing two hundred weight, and then fent to the dyer to try it, who fets a price on it according to its goodness. The best is commonly valued at 181. a ton.

Adjoining to Bedfordshire is the county of Bucks, taking its name from beech trees, in which it abounds, as I am told, more than any other part of England. Confequently this fhire is diversified with pleasant woods and fine ftreams, which render it a defireable country; befides the quality of its air, which is generally good, efpecially on the Chiltern-hills, so that there is not a better in the whole island: and even in the vale, where it is not altogether fo good, it is much better than in other low dirty counties. Its chief rivers are the Thames, the Oufe, and the Colne. The foil, being generally marle or chalk, is very fruitful, especially in corn; and though it is ftony on the Chiltern-hills, yet amidst thofe ftones there come up good crops of choice wheat and barley. It abounds too with physical plants, perhaps more than any other county. As the land in the vale is proper for grazing, fo it abounds with cattle. There are fome graziers here, who perhaps have 4 or 50cl. a-year in land of their own, and yet rent three times as much, which they keep all in their own management: and it is very certain, that one fingle meadow, called Buryfield, in the manor of Quarendon, was let not many years ago for 8ool. a-year. But the foil here, though fo good to feed fheep, is too rich to breed them; and it is common to give 10l. for a ram to breed. The sheep of the vale of Alesbury are the biggest in England, and their mutton is very good; yet whoever has eaten of that of Banftead, Bagfhot, and Tunbridge, muft own there is better. The beef here is fo good, that Buckinghamshire bread and beef was formerly a pro verb; meaning, that the former was the finest, and the latter the fattest in England.

The manufactures of this fhire are paper and bone-lace; the former inade at Wycomb mills, and the latter at Newport-Pagnel, where the lace is very little inferior to that of Flanders. And here I can't forbear remarking how far the English degenerate from their native capacity of improving manufactures, in the particular cafe of paper, which, notwithstanding they have greater plenty of the best rags, they commonly make out of old rotten materials, the fhavings and cuttings of paper, till it will not bear the weight of the prefs; and fell their best rags abroad fo cheap, that the Dutch, French and Genoele, are able to import paper, made chiefly of English rags, cheaper and always better than any that is made in England, which is a great oversight.

My tutor, who was an Oxonian, having brought us to the confines of Oxfordshire, affured me that it would be worth my while to fee and fpend a few days in the famous city and university of Oxford; to which I readily condescended, but shall refer my minutes of that agreeable feat of learning to its proper place; and, at prefent, I only obferve, that Oxfordshire enjoys a fweet healthful air, and is a very plentiful country; for the plains are judiciously difpofed into corn-fields and meadows, and its few hills exalt their heads with lofty woods, and harbour great plenty of all forts of game. I did not meet with any particular manufacture in the whole county.

From Oxford we departed for Gloucestershire, which abounds with all forts of grain, cattle, fowl and game, and every thing that other counties produce, and altogether as

VOL. II.

C

excellent

excellent in their kinds, especially bacon and cyder; and its rivers afford as great plenty of fish, especially falmon from the Severn, together with lampreys and congereels. But, to give a truer idea of this county, we shall confider it in three parts, according to its ufual divifion, viz.

1. Cotefwould, the hilly part of the county, bordering on Warwick fhire, Oxfordfhire, and Berkshire. It is not very fertile, and lies expofed to the winds and cold, fo that its corn is flow in coming out of the ground; from whence arofe the proverb in this county, It is as long in coming as Cotefwould barley: but then it is healthy, and feeds a multitude of fheep, whofe wool is exceeding fine, and fo improved by the inhabitants, that they may be reckoned as golden fleeces to the county, many of whofe towns are fo eminent for the cloathing manufacture, that they have no others fit to be named with it. It has been computed that before English wool began to be clandeftinely exported to France, fifty thoufand cloths were made yearly in this fhire, which are estimated at ten pounds a cloth, the fine with the coarfe; and the number of fheep kept in the county, of which most are fed in this part of it, is computed at four hundred thousand. It is faid, that the fine Spanish wool came originally from the Cotefwould sheep; one of the English kings, either Richard I. or Edward I. having made a prefent of the breed to the then King of Spain.

2. The Vale, which is the middle part of the county, and spreads into a fruitful plain lying on both fides of the Severn, is a quite different clime from the Cotefwould, where, if it be true that there are eight months in the year winter, and four too cold for fummer, here it is certain are eight months fummer, and four too warm to deserve the name of winter. It is in this part of the county that excellent cheefe is made, which is the fattest and most agreeable to the palate of any in England; though that which is fo called in London, comes, for the most part out of Wiltshire; the real cheese of this county going more to Bristol than to London.

3. The foreft of Dean, which is the most weft part of the county, lies between the Severn and the Wye. It was heretofore covered with wood, and contained thirty thousand acres of it, being twenty miles long, and ten broad; and it was then fuch a harbour for robbers, efpecially towards the banks of the Severn, that in the reign of Henry VI. an act of Parliament was made on purpose to reftrain them. But fince fo many rich veins of iron have been difcovered, and forges cftablished here by acts of Parliament for working it, which require vaft quantities of wood to support them, the woods are not only reduced to narrower bounds, but many towns and villages have been built in the forest, as is ufual where any manufacture is carried on; infomuch, that here are three hundreds, twenty-three parish churches, three market-towns, one mayor-town, one caftle, and one abbey. Where the woods are ftill preserved, the oaks are reckoned the beft in England; the foil, which is a wet clay, being proper for the growth of them. The oak timber of this forest was anciently fo famous, that most of that employed in building of Englifh fhips was fetched from hence and this was fo well known to the Spaniards, that their invincible armada, which was fent in 1558 to invade England, was ordered exprefsly to destroy this foreft, in hopes thereby of quite ruining the English navigation. Formerly, I was told, the valleys of this county, which now are with more profit to the owners turned into orchards, were full of vineyards. In a word, this county abounds in corn, wood, wool, iron, fteel, cyder, falmon, and cheese.

We ftill kept within land, and arrived in Monmouthfhire, which was formerly a Welth county. Its air is temperate and healthy, the caft parts are woody, and the weft parts are a little mountainous; but in the general it is fruitful enough, and the

hills feed cattle, fheep, and goats, while the valleys produce plenty of grafs and corn, efpecially the latter, of which here is as good wheat as in any county of the kingdom, and yet lands never fell for more than twenty-one years purchafe. The Bristol merchants fend their fhips hither to take off great quantities of its corn for Portugal and other countries. Coals are fo cheap here, that it is common to fee a good fire in the meaneft cottage; for a horfe load cofts but 2d. at the mouth of the pit.

The principal manufacture of the county is flannel. The gentlenen here generally fpeak English, though the current language of the vulgar is Welfh. The natives were formerly reckoned a valiant and courageous people, and the moft fkilful archers of all the Welsh borderers; yet they were cruelly harraffed after the Normans came into England by the lords of the marshes, to whom feveral of the English kings granted all they could conquer here for their own.

Our next route was into Herefordfhire, which, they fay, has also been a Welfh county; and its prodigious quantities of orchards and fruit trees, the very hedges being full of them, have obtained to this county the agreeable name of the Orchard of England. This county abounds with all things neceffary for life; but more especially with corn, wool, falmon, and cyder; and its wool and cyder is generally counted the beft in England; yet this cyder, fo much admired, is made of the red-freak-apple, which is fcarce eatable; and grows no where fo well as in this county.

After a fhort flay we arrived in Worcestershire, whofe air and foil are fo kindly, that it is inferior to none of its neighbours, either for health or pleasure, the former being sweet all over the county, the latter rich both in tillage and pafturage, the hills being covered with flocks of theep, and the valleys abounding in corn and rich meadows. Neither is it lefs happily accommodated with water; for it has in all parts very fine rivers, as the Severn, Stour, Avon, Teme, &c. which furnish it plentifully with fish of the moft delicious kinds. The noble Severn directs the courfe of its rich ítream from north to fouth through the very middle of the county; and the Avon from Warwickshire runs into that river through the fouth part of the fhire. Its commodities befides corn, cattle, cheese, wool, cloth, ftuffs, cyder, lampreys, &c. are perry and falt, and the latter fuch in a peculiar manner. Its perry is made of pears, and the best kind of it is very palateable, especially if it be three or four years old, when it is racy and fpiritous. Hops are latély very much cultivated in this fhire, which commodity, and their falt, are fent down the Severn in a fort of veffels called troughs, of which at least twenty are conftantly employed to Bristol, Bridgewater, and other places, Somerfetfhire and Dorsetshire being chiefly fupplied with the latter by this traffic.

Still returning to the north-east we entered Warwickshire, whofe air is excellent,' the foil rich, and its principal commodities are corn, malt, wool, wood, iron, coal, and

cheese.

'Tis divided into two parts, the Felden, and the Woodland; that on the fouth fide,. and this on the north fide of the Avon; by which it is certain, that as the former was a champaign, the other was a woody country. The first afforded all the pafture, and corn grounds; and the fecond was of little ufe, befides fuel; but the iron works, in the adjacent countries, have fo confumed the wood, that they have long fince made.way for the plough; and at present, what by marle, and other good contrivances, all this. part yields abundance of corn; fo that the Felden, which ufed to fupply the other with corn, cheese, and butter, is now turned, in a great measure, into pafturing. The foil of both is good, and produces excellent corn and cheese, especially the latter, which has, fo much the preference, that the very name of it given to that of other counties, which is not fo good, is enough to carry it off.